Brink Review

Brink PC
Published By: Bethesda
Developed By: Splash Damage
Released on May 12, 2011
Price: $49.99


It has often been said that in today's stale gaming scene, overcrowded by cookie-cutter clones of Call of Duty, gamers need a breath of fresh air. Enter Brink.

Brink is the latest masterpiece from UK developer Splash Damage, famous for their work on the Enemy Territory series. Running on the id Tech 4 engine that was made famous by such gems as Doom 3, Quake 4, and PREY, Brink sets off on a completely different tangent from it's forebearers. Brink is an online team-based multiplayer shooter which mixes up class based teamplay, free running acrobatics, and an online campaign which manages to include impressive cinematics rendered in-engine that drive the story forward. The very same campaign can be played offline, with a host of friendly AI bots on your team.

The gameplay in Brink is somewhat reminiscent of Team Fortress 2, in the sense that you have a set of classes to pick from, however Brink gives you a plethora of upgrades and options to customize your play style, not to mention for changing your look. As you earn XP and level up, you will gain new outfits, tattoos, and the like for making sure that your character's looks suit your style.

Back to the topic of gameplay, the missions in brink are laid out in an objective based fashion, one team on defense, and the opposing team completing the objectives as they go. A great emphasis is placed on working as a team, going it alone will only get you killed. Changing classes to suit your situation is definitely a must if you want to survive for very long.

There are a good variety of maps in Brink, each one sprawling beyond the size of the average game, with lots of nooks and crannies to explore. This is where two interesting factors come into play: body size and SMART. Your body size dictates how agile you are, a large body can't jump as high as a medium or small, and is slower, and small bodies can move faster and duck through low clearance areas with ease. The other factor is SMART (Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain). Using the assigned SMART button allows your character to seamlessly traverse the varied terrain, quite similar to free running. It can really help you get away from your adversaries in a pinch.

The PC version of Brink doesn't suffer from the so called "consolitis" that afflicts many recent titles. It truly feels built from the ground up for the platform, with a wealth of customization for the graphics and controls, and also dedicated servers for the online mode. An excellent server browser rounds out the package, making it easy to search for the match you want to join. Shooter fans defniately can't go wrong with Brink.